Electromagnetic field and energy are paradoxically used for both the advantage and disadvantage of humans health. Medical imaging technologies such as radiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electrocardiogram (ECG), computerized tomography (CT), and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) are all but based on electric, magnetic, or electromagnetic field and energy principles. Other electromagnetic medical technologies that include all kind of ablations, cardio pumps, pacemakers, biosensors, and deep brain stimulators equally rely on the same principles. Nevertheless, the exposure to electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic field from the very same medical devices, power lines, wireless communication devices and equipment are of great concern to the general population and government regulatory agencies.
Electromagnetic simulation tools and software are becoming indispensable and crucial for the biomedical and medical technology engineer to better design medical equipment and study the effect of EMF exposure on humans health.
EMWorks has the ideal electromagnetic simulation solution, for you, the biomedical engineer and designer. It offers you two software packages, EMS and HFWorks, fully and seamlessly embedded in Solidworks, Autodesk Inventor, and SpaceClaim for frequencies ranging from DC to mmWave or even beyond. In addition to the seamless and versatile CAD integration, EMS and HFWorks both have an integrated thermal module that empowers you to compute the temperature rise due to various device and biological tissue losses. A typical application that can make use of this electro-thermal feature is the RF Cardiac Ablation that rely on the heat generated by the catheter inside the human heart to destroy the re-entry current responsible for cardiac arrhythmia. In addition to the thermal module, EMS has also an integrated structural module that computes the deformation due to temperature rise and electromagnetic force.
Most medical devices, especially those that use catheters and implantables, operate at frequencies lower than 1 GHz. Hence, EMS which neglects Maxwell's displacement current, and rely on a static and quasi-static approach is most probably the most suitable candidate. Applications that use frequencies higher than 1 GHz and based on electromagnetic radiation and electromagnetic waves fall mostly under the jurisdiction of HFWorks. For instance, the study of EMF exposure to cell phones and other wireless communication devices are surely HFWorks’ applications. Whereas, the EMF exposure to power lines and power engineering equipment are EMS’s applications. There could be some overlap between the two packages. The following examples should help you understanding the biomedical applications of EMS and HFWorks.